#of individual stupidity on multiple characters parts.

[bykalopsia]

this show. instead of takumi going "hey that orphnoch is yuka maybe we could chillax for half a second" nobody says anything and we somehow escalate to this.

like what else am i supposed to do but laugh at this point jhdshfjdsfjdk

[manachiichan]

Rooting for you

(Headcanons)

Synopsis: An Alternate reality where you ended up with the Marines instead. Having watched the series, you could only trust Koby with your well being.

Pairing: Koby x Isekaid!Fem!Reader

Spoilers from Water 7 and Marineford! Part of my Isekai series!

Mentions of having majored in marine biology cuz why not...

Just request for part two if anyone wants more...!

|| One Piece Masterlist ||

"Hey...Is she alive?"

"She just fell out of nowhere..."

"Um....Excuse me...?"

Hearing murmurs of concern and skeptism, you moved slightly before letting out a groan as the sun's ray hit your form. You winced as the light stings your slightly drowzy eyes, slowly opening them, you see dozen of figures looming over your form.

All of them being men wearing a white uniform vest and white caps. Your half concious self immediately panicked, overthinking of multiple possibilities the moment your gaze saw that almost every single one of them were armed.

You were lying on a wooden floor, in your pajamas, having no clue of what was going on. The last thing, you remembered was cramming up for 2 days straight for your upcoming exams, before passing out, the moment you took a break.

And somehow...You sat there, having a mental breakdown with a group of unindentified individuals, thinking that you were somehow kidnapped.

"What's the hell is all commotions is about...?"

A burly old man who wore a white suit, an animal hat and a huge coat like cape came through the crowd. He look like he had just woken up from a nap with how annoyed he was.

"Huh...? Who is this little girl...?"

You blinked. You know this man, and somehow you couldn't help but raise a finger on where you have seen him before..

But you soon got your answer when two smaller figures pushed through the crowds.

'No way...'

Pink hair, that noticeable scar underneat a green floral bandana and dark purple glasses. A long haired blonde man besides him. The same pink haired man knelt infront of you with an concerned look on his face.

You would have commented that it was a good cosplay but there was no way they were not real.

"Are you okay, miss...?"

Those gentle tone of pure concern, no cosplay could never replicate one of the characters you personally know and love.

You were in One Piece.

More importantly infront of the eyes of the marines.

"...Huh...?!"

Even if the marines were literary the noble good guys/heroes in the eyes of the people, they were still one of the major antagonists of the whole franchise.

So you were honestly freaking out, that you couldn't help but become feral every time one of those marine npcs tried to approach you. You knew they meant well and was only trying to make you feel at ease around them, but you couldn't help it.

You were watching the series on the pirates' perspectives and that gave you a bad impression of them.

After the whole fiasco, seeing that they were more of the threat to you than you were to them, they began treating you as if you were a delicated flower. As you were terrified, confused and unarmed, the definition of a prey under the watchful gaze of predators.

And with how their sense of justice is, it almost seems unfair for you. In their eyes, you're mostly an innocent civilian. Suspicious but purely innocent in a way.

And for the most part, you somehow understood their behavior. You were in the world where men would literary fawn over any beautiful women that they would let her trample over them. You can't help but question once in a while, how ridiculous and stupid that logic is.

And you are a woman, you couldn't help but wonder how good looking you were in their eyes for even allowing you to do what you want in their ship.

"Which Island are you from?"

"Not here..."

"North, South, East, or West blue? Where from there?"

"No where..."

Garp was mostly laid-back around you. Although he asked a few questions regarding where you lived since he was hoping to drop you off at the nearest habitable Island they see.

But there was something that made him stop, so he decided to just let you be.

You were mostly honest with him, although you decide against on telling him that you were from another world where his was nothing but fictional.

Besides, he could always knock you out with a single punch if you turned out to be a threat.

And truth to be told, you have nowhere else to go. So he took pity on that.

Because you were a helpless woman who have no where else to go, his men literary went on strike when they heard that he was about to throw you off on an island, like how he did with his grandsons

What he didn't know was, as a student who has zero sleep and tends to over think over the most simplest things, you already thought ahead and made plans on what you have to do if you want to last long.

After reading a few isekai manga and transmigration korean manhwas in your little spare time, you decided to use the knowledge of the plot and wikipedia that you have already memorized by heart.

So far, the marines are the safest options to be with if you want to survive.

Even if they keep getting their ass kicked by the worst generations and pirates who has more than hundred million bounties.

But even so, they were still trained professionals, its either that or die trying to adapt.

And out of all the marines in Garp's ship, Koby was the safest option.

You followed him around like a lost child and he was happy to help you to adjust on the ship.

And since, Koby is a literal sweetheart, He doesn't mind you constantly being around him. Infact, he found it flattering how you trust him out of everyone on the ship.

And where Koby is, there is also Helmeppo. He was suspicious of you at first but gradually warmed up to you.

And now you have an older brother figure who is also your bodyguard, throwing glares at any unwanted attention thay his fellow marines constantly throw.

"It's gonna storm soon, better to be prepare..."

"Ah...Theres gonna be a pirate ship in that horizon...Shouldn't you go after them...?"

".....Someone will fall on that stairs soon...."

As days passed, somehow, you noticed how you were able to predict things before it could happen.

Was it a somehow gift from the god who sent you into this world? Anyways, you took that to your advantage and now you're pretty more useful than before.

And since then, almost every single soldier on board had been constantly asking you on predicting the weather or even their own luck.

Koby would fret on overworking yourself seeing how dark your eyebags had become.

"Are you getting enough sleep? Do you need to visit the infirmatory..?

"Koby, I'm fine. This is a normal thing I often do back home..."

"Not sleeping is normal?! You could kill yourself at this rate....!"

Eventually he put his foot down, scolding anyone who even tried to ask you to use your new ability...

Eventually words gotten really quick, or maybe the marines reported back to the headquarters since even Sengoku is made aware of your existence.

Your ability is quite useful, so he inlisted you as a cadet in the navy much to your distain.

But hey, you managed to convince Garp to go easy on you, since you would never even survive his training.

And you learned it the hard way. Your body is otherworldly, and is a bit different from the body of steel that these characters have. You would never survive being tossed to the mountains...

Because well....It's Garp.

Koby had taken over your training. Teaching you combat in the most gentle ways he could do. One in a while, Helmeppo would join you two and pointing out the wrongs, helping you out with correcting the techniques they use.

This brought the three of you closer than before. Now, everyone expects you to be either with one of them if they seek you out.

But most of the time, you were with Koby. And if he was busy, you would be with Helmeppo, either asking for pointers or even fooling around.

But if they weren't available......you were with Garp. He learned to tone down his training with you after he literary sent you to the infirmatory with a single punch.

And you didn't heal up completely until a month later. Putting your training on stand by.

Again, his men literary forgot that he's their vice admiral with how they literary ganged up on them for breaking your fragile bones like that.

Until Garp's ship sailed to Water 7, you immediately knew what was up...

Koby and Helmeppo were really confused. You were literally just dying from training a few minutes ago. But as soon as they mentioned going to Water 7, it was as if you came back from the dead.

"Is there something wrong, (Name)-san...?"

"You wouldn't understand, Koby..."

You fawned over Luffy and Zoro as soon as you saw them... They both look amazing in person...! Minus the fact that you could literally smell their body odors from miles away.

Sometimes, you wonder why the women of their crew managed to survive smelling their scents all the time.

At least Koby and Helmeppo bathes often. They knew how important personal hygiene is anyways.

Yet somehow, you can't help but feel that you betrayed both Koby and Helmeppo, given that the blonde was giving you a look of disbelief and betrayal, seeing how you literally cheered the pirates over them.

The betrayal...! You're not his little sibling anymore!

Although, Koby was happy that he was able to introduce you to his friend. He can't help but feel that you were much more of a fan than he ever was.

Especially Zoro. You just won't stop staring at him. Especially ok those hard muscles of his.

But at that moment, a thought came into his mind. At this point, you know a lot more about everyone than they know about you. It made him feel guilty that he barely knew anything about your likes or dislikes.

So he made more effort to get to know you better.

You have a vast knowledge of the sea, much to the marines' surprise. Koby couldn't help but smile, seeing the way your eyes sparkled as you rambled on about ocean life. The ecosystem of the water around them and the life in it.

Although you couldn't read the world's letters, he was happy enough to teach you read and write. Giving him an opportunity to get close to you more.

And once in a while, Koby found himself, having to spend his night shifts with you, reading you books of the Grand line's marine biology. Watching your every reaction.

The way you have a huge smile on your face and how you turn to him with an excited look, showing a page of something you liked and wanted to share with him.

And without having to reveal that much to him, you would talk about your old life back home before your sudden transmigration. How you were simply struggling to meet ends, studying hard for exams. Getting a degree, although you doubt that will happen now that you were here.

Koby understood now. Why do you look on the verge of passing out when you first came onboard the Vice Admiral's ship. How you were frantic about not being able to take the exams anymore and how he had to calm you down.

Compared to those days, you look more alive and vibrant as the months pass by. You were more closed off but now, you were willing to share this much about yourself.

"(Name)-san...Do you like spending time with us...?"

"Ofcourse...! You guys literally took me in when I needed it the most. I like being here with you..."

Your comment made his heart thump louder than usual. There was relief and joy when he heard your words and something he couldn't understand.

He shook his head, deciding to ignore the odd yet pleasant sensation in his stomach for now.

He really likes spending time with you, too. He likes how you really paid a lot of attention and never once tried to make him uncomfortable.

And you managed to worm yourself into Helmeppo's good side too. It was as if you knew what to say around them.

You can't tell them that you basically watched the whole series, read the manga and even binge read the entire one piece wikipedia though.

Until the report of the upcoming war came. Koby noticed how your demeanour suddenly changed.

You were more anxious than usual. You even lack sleep, as if you reverted back to the time, you first suddenly appeared on the ship.

You were muttering and mumbling more than usual, always lost in deep thoughts.

"...I'm....running out of time....."

".....I...should make a difference....but given how I still lack the skills...."

"Can I......save.....him....?"

You asked Garp himself to finally train you again, much to everyone's surprise. There was a look of determination on your face. You were on a personal mission anyways.

Garp thought that you were finally growing some backbone so he didn't think that much of it. You were now a marine. You can take on a little training.

Little means hell. But Garp is clearly slightly holding back due to your body not being used nor exposed to this kind of torture.

You know that you were literally speed running but you were running out of time.

It was about the time of his capture now. And soon enough, you'll be entering the war that will determine the next course of action of the entire world.

And during the evening, Koby would be the one mentoring you. He was more gentle and less brutal than Garp was, at the same time, he often pointed out the mistakes you did in the day.

"Stay close to us, (Name)-san! Helmeppo-san and I can't protect you if you're out of our sights..!"

"No wait...! I can take care of myself...!

"What are you talking about?! We're in a warzone...! We have to stay together...!"

The Summit war was far worse than it was in the anime. There was blood and debris everywhere. Everyone was dying from left and right.

Seeing the man that drove many fans to tears in the center platforms to be executed, surrounded by the top dogs of the Navy, gave you a reality check.

You can't change anything. You can't speed run through it all. It was an event that was truly unavoidable.

You were no main character like those isekai stories you were all so familiar about. You don't have any special skills to be anything special enough to bend the plot that Oda-sensei created.

Koby and Helmeppo were still far stronger than you, yet they were completely at the mercy of the war. All they could do was shield you from the overwhelming gales of power between the pirates and the Navy higher ups.

You couldn't do anything. You froze when a pirate came, raising their sword to end you. It was different experiencing it in real life.

Helmeppo saved you. Given that Koby was out of it, he was the one making sure that the two of you were still alive.

It was...really different...You finally had a taste of reality. Transmigration wasn't something to be treated with excitement of leaving the world you grew up with for a world you always dreamt of going. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows than what most people would expect.

Gathering your wits, you decided to focus. Ace's death was inevitable. No matter how much you wanted to avoid it. This was reality.

"Koby...!"

Koby was experiencing his awakened observation Haki for the first time. And you knew how hard it is for him, hearing the dying thoughts of each marines and pirates alike in the war. The voices that overlap one after another before eventually fading.

You provided support for him at this time, attempting to silence his hearing by cradling his head as close to you as possible even though you knew it was useless. Atleast, all you can do now was provide comfort for him.

Tears threaten to fall from your eyes, this was your new reality. All you can do was watch from the sidelines how truly cruel it really was in the world you only saw in the anime and manga series.

You were not the main character, so you couldn't make any difference. You can only watch as the soon to be Fleet Admiral plunged his overwhelming devil fruit power to an unsuspecting Luffy before Ace took the heat.

You couldn't change anything at all. So what was the point of being here in the first place?

"....That's...what you been feeling all this time, (Name)-san..?"

You froze. Before glancing down to see Koby staring at you with tears streaming down from his eyes.

He read your thoughts accidentally. Using the Haki he recently just awakened.

© manachii 2024 ~ all rights reserved. please do not repost, copy, etc. any of the works I made.

[adamnablelittledevil]

I'm excited for Devil's Minion but I hope the Lesmand aspect isn't undermined in its favor. That ship may not be endgame but it's so important to both Lestat and Armand.

I only know Devil's Minion content from what I've seen on the tag, but I share the same feeling! I also enjoy Armand and Daniel's dynamic on the show. I can't wait to see more if it (and any possible duo, romantic/endgame or not, because they're all so appealing) and I hope they did have something in the past as well (and I think it's highly possible), because both Eric and Luke are great. And, well, this chemistry is too extraordinary to ignore.

Sure, this scene wasn't a positive one, but tell me they don't have potential to deliver the romantic content?

So, about the books, I'm still on chapter 5 of The Vampire Lestat (I'm leaving IWTV for last), but so far I don't see how they could reduce lesmand. I guess you could say there is some romantic aspect to them, but there's so much more than that too. Now, I might be interpreting this wrong or things will naturally change over the course of the books, but I believe they have this soul ties/mirrors/foils/two sides of the same coin aspect. It's only been a little over one chapter since Armand was firstly introduced, but their dynamic already feels so important. They're so similar and yet so different, they're fascinated by each other, they see parts of themselves that they don't like on one another, they see things they can't understand but want to, there's empathy, there's protectiveness, they're attracted to one another and not even just in a physical/romantic sense, but there's some genuine curiosity, admiration and magnetism there, but they're still afraid of each other, they still despise one another, they hurt each other, they know it's better to stay way, but don't really want to so it challenges them to the point they also HATE each other... I even feel like it's more frustration and projection than actual hate, but still... They're very INTENSE, in every sense of the word. And it keeps fleeting all the time, sometimes it's warmer, sometimes it's more explosive, sometimes they have similar reactions to one another and sometimes they don't... Which leads to different types of tension that is entertaining to play with. Plus, they have the best conversations and arguments for me. They touch on some really relevant topics about each other's existence, their collective existence as a species and as individuals (which is part of their conflict). Basically, we can call them whatever we want, but they're never boring.

So I can't see them being able to change that even if they want to? Also, because Armand is the first vampire Lestat meets after his maker and fledgling. Magnus kills himself shortly after turning Lestat, Gabrielle and Lestat are almost on the same level when it comes to powers and knowledge about vampirism. Armand exists out of their sphere, has been a vampire for a while, has more abilities/knowledge than them... I feel like you need that in order to 'shake' things up on the flashbacks instead of just being in the bubble of Lestat and his fledglings or using Armand as a small character.

And Assad is one of the main actors, he's paid for main actor screen time, so it would be a waste not to use him as such? And, like you said, it's so important for both Armand's and Lestat's arcs, and this is a main character + main character dynamic, it's not like a side plot with a guest star. It would be killing multiple birds with one stone, because you'd find a way to use two fundamental characters, tell the story in a proper and also engaging way. Not to mention they would be insanely stupid to waste this.

Yeah, I know this is different on the book, but my point is that the enigmatic chemistry they're supposed to have is there and Rolin should make the most of it. Like, I'm still a bit frustrated they didn't play a little more with Jacob and Assad's chemistry too.

So let's not do it again? I mean, this is the first show I watch where everyone has amazing chemistry and good reasons to have lots of scenes together because they live forever and need to have more than just one company, lol. I say let's explore all of it, whether something is romantic/endgame or not.

Anyway, I believe we'll see a lot of Armand in the 1700s flashbacks and that lesmand will be top 2 of Armand's dynamics on season 3. Depending on what they want to do with armandiel, they might even explore more of lesmand next season, since that's 'Lestat's' season and they can have all future seasons for armandiel? I mean, I can see something kind of like season 2, when we had loumand, but dreamstat was still a significant presence and then the big scene at the end. Plus, I'm expecting Daniel to have a lot of screen time with Louis and Lestat, respectively.

Btw, sorry I deflected so much, I just had a lot to say, lmao. Thank you for the message. :)

[bookdragon-shenanigans]

I just read the fourth wing bonus chapter and MAN. I knew I wasn't Xaden's biggest fan before but MAN. I honestly don't even know how they ruined a character with so much potential is beyond my understanding???? Xaden is straight up unlikable in the chapter. So many issues in the chapter.

[Caution: Listen, I love Xaden, truly. But he really makes me want to beat him up I'm sorry]

Opinions so far: (Warning: This is not Xaden-friendly I might be a major bitch for 80% 😭)

The chapter felt kind of unnecessary?? Like even if it was a cash grab (which I agree but that's not the point rn) did we really need a bonus chapter that's just the same chapter but just rewritten with some occasional Xaden comments? We could've gotten a new interaction but noooo

With the amount of obsessing talking Xaden does about Dain, you'd think Dain was the one he has a crush on. No because stop this you're literally doing the same thing you accuse everyone of doing to you. "Everyone judges the marked kids just because of what our parents did 🥺🥺👉👈" ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW??? Why are you being such a pissy bitch over the fact that he thinks you're bad for her when you literally agree???. [Coherent me update: In hindsight Xaden going out of his way to annoy Dain for entertainment is hilarious not gonna lie. Still think he was being a bitch tho]

The Imogen was missing plotline. Seriously? "Imogen was sick"?? They could just be like oh no she wiped everyone's memories so they don't remember because there is zero canon connection in her being sick. Also the fandom was spot on 💅. To be fair, I can excuse this one.

Xaden's "strategy". Why are we acting like battle strategy is a multiple choice question with one answer??? Where is the common sense?? Where is the individuality??? Where is the originality???

I just noticed this now but WHY IS THE CONTINENT THEY LIVE IN LITERALLY CALLED The Continent???? WHY ARE THEY ACTING LIKE THEY LIVE ALONE IN THE WORLD HELP

FINALLY Emery's last name

Okay I actually like passively possessive simp Xaden because let's be fr he's not noticing anyone other than Violet. He's really acting like the stupid hormonal emo 23 year old he his and I love him for that.

Xaden not understanding sibling dynamics is top tier I love this. Like this man is standing there so confused like 🧍‍♂️.

Highkey confused at the Lewellen part because I'm pretty sure they were fostered by Lindell?? Either this is shitty writing or a case of an unreliable narrator. Who knows. Not me.

SGAEYL. THAT'S IT. 🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐

"Violet would get over her sister's death eventually" CALM TF DOWN SIR. This is a civilized conversation. Okay but like someone needs to tell these people that murder doesn't solve everything. It's not even the best form of revenge 😭😭😭

I need more backstory on the Cygnis flier drama. Why only that province??? How come other provinces are safe??

"Wasn't my choice," I shrug. Lying is easy, except when it comes to Violet. I haven't quite figured that one out yet. Excuse me what

Okay, I know this is OS buildup but why were the wards down???

"Was it us?" LIAM. MY SWEET BABY BOY ILY YOU'RE THE BEST.

Okay I just realized now that Dain only name drops Rhiannon, Ridoc and Sawyer when he mentions the first years and man how did I not notice that before-

Lots of suspicious stuff. Lots.

IT HAS COME TO MY NOTICE THAT THERE IS A VERY HIGH AMOUNT OF MIRA DYING MENTIONED IN THE CHAPTER AND I DO NOT LIKE IT AT ALL

The bottom line is that I've read too much fanfiction and set my standards too high 😭😭

Anyways stan Liam my sweet summer child 🛐🛐

Update: I just came back from my exam and took a look at what I wrote here and help why was 5am me so salty 😭😭

[hextechmaturgy]

i have some more veilguard opinions to share with tumblr dot com, so BEWARE OF THE CONTENT BELOW!!!! this has spoilers about the very FINAL MISSION of the game, don't ruin the experience for yourself

sooooo

who did you guys choose to lead the second team and how much do you regret it? any thoughts about that? cause i sure have A FEW

look, anyone who knows me will tell you i love tragedy. unhappy endings sate me, i don't mind when 'good' characters die. i had it on my bingo card that varric would kick the bucket this game and was BEYOND happy when that reveal happened, i felt like i had manifested that shit and i was happy to know that my favorite character hadn't survived a seemingly fatal attack because of # fanservice

so what i'm about to say comes not from a dislike of losing companions, of not getting a happy ending for everyone, but out of frustration at how nonsensical this one loss felt. i played the mass effect games multiple times, i know how these suicide missions go! you do your companions' loyalty missions and pay attention to what they're good at individually, so when the final mission comes around and you have to choose someone to hack things, you know exactly which of your pixelated friends will be good at that sort of thing and send out to be heroes. it's a neat design choice i think, it requires that you think about your companions as people with strengths and weaknesses that make them stand out from the others

i chose davrin for the job of team leader. i had done his loyalty mission and he'd more than proved himself as a capable leader at weisshaupt. we saw him adapting to an ever worsening battle, talking strategy even when things got dire. as much as i love harding, i didn't think she could compare in this regard, and could clearly see how one option would be Good option and the other would be the Bad one that ends in the death of a companion

when davrin died as a result of his assigned role, when assan died trying to save him, i clutched my pearls. i suddenly remembered the talks i had with davrin where he expressed regret at having lived through the killing of ghilan'nain's archdemon, because wardens are supposed to die when they kill an archdemon as veteran dragon age fans will know. i realized that i had set him up for his idea of a perfect death, had given him the opportunity to go as a hero, "in death, sacrifice" and all that. i had gotten him and his baby griffon killed by not remembering his worse impulses, meanwhile harding would've flourished under the trust i would've placed on her, she'd prove she's not just a scout, that she can be an excellent leader in her own right now that she's accepted her role as a shepherd of truth for the dwarves and the stone. damn good writing, you fooled me well!

so imagine my disappointment when i looked up the outcome of making harding team leader instead and found out that it literally doesn't matter. silly me! i overthought a video game decision, why did i expect deep themes in a dragon age game amiright?

LITERALLY WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT DOESN'T MATTER. whoever you choose for that job always dies, there's no rhyme or reason to this one decision? bellara and neve will make it out of their 50/50 so long as they're loyal, but harding or davrin? they just die! because reasons!

i made me feel stupid, like i had cared too much and looked too hard into a game that is so rarely interested in leaving anything up for debate. some parts of this game are brilliantly written, i think solas is one of them, he's truly at his most trickster-y, so then... why are there so many other aspects of the game that are just there to annoy me. why is who betrayed lucanis a mystery, have you HEARD what illario sounds like. why is it that davrin or harding always die at the end. and no, i won't accept "that's how it is in real life, there's no sense in war" because this is a video game and every other companion death is avoidable if you play your cards right. what a waste!!!!!!!! DRAGON AGE: THE WASTED POTENTIAL!!!!!!

[ekwolfwriter-blog]

I just want to get this out but I am getting tired of people complaining about Live action Katara's lack of rage in the show. Especially because now, because it is missing from the LA show, there is a general trend of people that were annoyed with her behavior before now are defending it being part of her character. And before people think I am hating on them, no. I am not against people defending her rage, as I liked it a lot growing up and watching the show causally just as the next person. Katara was one of my favorite character of being a kind person while also taking names and kicking butt, she was that awesome. So more defense for her the better. Hell, I would say from just the interviews I have seen of Kiawentiio, she has - to me - the Katara sass and I am living for it.

What I am hating on is that the Live action Katara is getting ragged on for a lot of reasons - some valid, but other are (in my opinion) surface level stupid and not knowing of what actually might have been going on during the filming of season and probably the mindset that caused her character to be deflated. Because there is a lot to consider as to why it had to be condensed either for conveniences sake or - in my personal opinion - was done on purpose by two individuals that have a track records of curving that behavior in Katara to their desire.

Also: DON'T use this as an excuse to attack the actress! She is doing her best and giving her all! She is doing her job and any slander on her will be instantly blocked! I will not take any slander on her or any of the actors!

Also, mid spoilers so read at your own risk near the bottom

First thing we should consider: the amount of episodes. Yes, I am aware of the telling and not showing arguments that are being flown around. I get it. Normally, I am one of the biggest supporters that this show needed time to breath and let be to show than telling. If it had more time to breath, Katara's rage might have been more visible and we could have had more time for her arc to improve. And this is not to say that they could not have been able to do it, but I will say that this show NEEDED more than 8 episodes to be able to get as much in (To be clear, there are some shows that this works for - Amazon's Reacher and Legend of Zorro have short seasons and formatted for hour long content. But it makes sense for those shows because they are working within parameters of their medium and are newer (both are adaptions of older stuff but still) shows that can play around with the format better). For as ambitious as this project is, it has a lot to condense. At least that it is a show and not a movie, but still. Let's not forget that it could have been so much worst if it was a movie.

Now some people will say, "Well if they were good enough writers then they could have done more to show than tell," which fair. I will admit that there are infinite number of ways that they could handled some of the topics: such as Sokka's sexism and Katara's rage that everyone is missing. But with the landscape of media as is where you would be damned if you do damned if you don't if you so much as talk about some sensitive topic and you could be canceled for it instantly! Which leads me to the next point!

Second thing to consider: Multiple season renewal was never confirmed prior. Yes, we can all complain that the shows pacing was out of place. Yes, they cut some filler. And yes, it feels like we are getting too much of the world building through talking and now showing. But can you really blame them? To most people, if you saw the reaction of the cast before the news came out, you can see they were saddened by the fact they thought would not get a season 2. They changed their tune when season 2 and 3 was confirmed, and honestly happy for them. But again, that confirms to me that the writing had failed mostly because if they were never going to get their chance, might as well go all out. And with how easy shows can get picked up and canceled, I can see they needed to try and cram it in.

Which also plays into Katara's rage - they did not know if there was going to be a chance for her to grow and get bending abilities or go through her arc as steady as the animated. Again, I am not saying losing it was good, but that we need consider that if they were not going to get another season, they had to progress faster than usual. (Side note, while I like this show, Amazon's Hazbin Hotel has the same problem. We are steam rolling through what could be slow progression and change but can't slow because of episode constriction and no time to sit and allow the show to progress because it is so easy to drop the show for the studios, might as well end it on a note that at least can feel like it was it's own story.)

Speaking of studios, that would be my next point as well: studio and producer control. While I know directors can have a say in it, we should not forget about the studio that is allowing them to make this show in the first place and what they are asking for. As I keep saying, we don't know about what their restrictions are or if they can have more than a certain amount of episodes, and maybe that is a mandate of Netflix or something else, we as the audience don't know. We don't know what happens on set or behind the filming outside of glimpses and interviews, so for all we know, there was some changes to the script or teleplay to make it seem like they needed to cut Katara's rage to make her more meek. Which if this was the whole show, fine, that is a choice but not one I will have to like. But when watching the 3rd and 4th episodes, seeing Katara being a teenage girl and angry for once and even more open about her emotions was possible. Hell, it was the only times she was allowed to snap. And guess what people: it was because of the writing this time. That feminine rage you all wanted - while faint - was there. So clearly Netflix is not solely at fault - they have many mistakes but writing is not one of them.

But it is when you look who wrote what and where and what they were going for that - to me - puts EVERYTHING into place!

Final point: the original creators being brought on.

This might seem weird because one would think having the creators on the original show should be not as bad. The creators of the show is watching to make sure that the show is just right and that the characters feel the same or at least some of the story beats feel similar enough to enjoy. Why would them being on the set cause issues with the pacing and writing?

To a casual fan, yeah that makes sense. But to those that have been in the fandom, have see what they do post cannon to ALL of the characters - especially how they treat Katara in Legend of Korra - then anyone watching might have realized that that should have been a warning sign. Especially with how they would have wanted to depict the characters. And this is also the reason I think Katara's rage is gone: I think they wanted to make her like the comics version of her being a meek and demure girl that while caring was not getting as angry or as passionate about things because that would go against what Bryke wanted Katara to be in the show.

As I mentioned before, Katara's rage or at least genuine anger was only in for about two episodes out of the 8. And if you take out the 5th and 6th where she has been basically damseled with Sokka in the spirit world, that leaves on 4 more episodes to allow her to have her anger. Typically, one can thing, "Okay we can sprinkle it here or there in the other two and it should world". But all it takes is to see who was writing the episodes that truly not only hinder the world building of the show and breaks the rules of show don't tell or crammed it in so blatantly it feels like cringe and got rid of Katara being the one to free Aang because of her anger - was Bryke! They were the ones that were the head writers of the first episode and the 8th episode. The ones that had the most cramming down your throats dialogue, the clunky explaining of Aang's character out of now where and even curving Katara's rage or ability to be angry or snarky like she was in the show. Because Bryke wrote them, and also teleplayed a few - this being like adding notes and what the camera needs to do and how to frame scenes along side the dialogue. Meaning that they had some hand in making Live Action Katara this way.

If you notice in the episodes they didn't write: Omashu and the Cave of Two lovers - they were the only ones where Katara could be a bit more snappy and a bit more annoyed and vocal toward at least Sokka and Jet - not a lot but it was there. And oh would you look at that, the episode that they did not write had HEAVY hints for a certain firebender and waterbender being hinted at and color coded the lovers more vividly. And also, Katara getting to be empathetic while also not over explaining - which many always ragged on her for - where she could be human for once. Those episodes were the ones that they did not write and the story was somewhat better (Not better but I will take it over what we got prior)

And again, casual viewers might not know why this is a bad thing or probably wondering why I am against Bryke. But all it takes is looking at what they did to animated Katara that you all try to say "Was perfect as she was before" without considering what they did to her after the curtain fell. For any fan that has been following the show, you will find that most fans of Katara - the animated one -did not like what they did to her in the comics that continued their story and Legend of Korra, where she was a husk of a shell of her former self. And how she was all about "What Aang would have done, and what Aang did and oh how I missed Aang, he would know what to do". And yet, if she even showed any anger or negative emotions, she was painted as the bad person - easily look up Katara in the comics with a google search and you can see her being pushed around and flattened almost all the time when she is showing negative emotions that are genuine and not the funny mad in the show. Especially in the show as seen through this post, it did not always paint her anger in a natural thing for her or reinforced her angry as more comedic than actually something to consider as important until someone else stepped in to help her see it *cough* Zuko *cough*.

So to all the people that are trying to come after the live action Katara as being "Not the same energy girl power character who was expressive about her anger" you all "loved from the start'', please consider who and what was behind the scenes to make her this way. Especially since the animated show had other writers besides Bryke that understood Katara better if not more. Bryke wanted her to be more demure even in the pilot, and damsel. And yet the other writers gave her an actual story. Byrke have shown time and time again they do not want and angry passionate water bender that wants to be more active in changing the wrongs in the world, they want her to be more meek and docile and not fight back to let others save her in the comics and after. The OG had other writers that gave her her arc and Mae Whitmen give her the sass that we all love.

Live action Katara is no different. She has been trying to come into her own - with limited time to tell a story, limited time to get her arcs in fearful of cancellation, and with different writers, she can work, but not with Bryke. Same goes for the other characters too, not just Katara, but it seems that everyone pokes at Katara more and it is getting frustrating because some of these people just can never be happy with Katara.

Hopefully with season 2 and 3, we can have more time to flesh out the characters and maybe even have more show don't tell moments and being able to explore their feelings more. But only time will tell.

Rant over, sorry for the rambling mess.

[alittlefrenchtree]

Nick saying being misunderstood is his biggest fear and that happens pretty much every day with fans, randoms and movie pages twisting his words or not focusing on the important things he says. He says he doesn't want to be only a pretty face meanwhile his fans only talk about how pretty he is, the talk on M&G is only about how good he looks. He doesn't want to be stuck in one role and wants to prove he can do more, meanwhile his fans keep making joke about him being always a gay character or royal. Some so called fans twisting his words on rwrb on top of pretending the journalist opinion is Nick opinion. Journalists (including those that are supposed to be his friend) keep setting him up with stupid question or by leaving out part of his answers. I'm so tired of this and I'm just a fan, I can't imagine how he must feel.

<For the record and context, this message has been sent to me a few days ago, after the Just for Variety Podcast and before the podcast with Taylor.>

Note: I understand Anon’s expression of feelings but it’s always important to remind that we don’t stigmatize fandoms on this blog, neither Nick’s or Taylor’s as individual or RWRB’s as a whole. A few loud voices don’t speak for the whole group. All Nick’s fans don’t fall into these categories we’re speaking of here. Hashtag not all fans.

All of that being said, and without wanting belittle your feelings, I did heart a lot of promising things in the way Nick’s answered this question. Maybe not in the way fans behave but regarding of the intelligence and maturity with which he’s looking at the whole situation.

For me, the most important thing he said is that he knows he has to accept that he won’t be in control of the narrative — ever. I think someone said it was something linked to Hayes’ character (and if the movie can carry at least this message, it will be something already). And it is so hard to see someone (and multiple someones) says something wrong about you and not correct them, not react, and not do anything. Many people have already experienced it at a smaller scale, so it’s not hard to imagine what it must feel like for public people. But it looks like he already has the first tool to deal with that. As a public person and as an actor, he is not in control of his narrative. His narrative is told by the audience and by the people he’s paying and trusting to lead the narrative in the right direction (maybe not the true one, but the right one for his career). And actually, it’s not even his narrative. It’s the narrative of a person that looks like him, is a bit of himself and represents him but isn’t exactly him. So even if this persona is misunderstood, it has to be annoying at a professional level and not hurting at a personal level. Of course I’m not saying it should allow fans to say crazy things all the time or that it’s easy for him (and for any of them) all the time but he seems to already know how to look at the problem, so it should be reassuring.

He’s also quick to remind that "ultimately, it all goes down to the work" and even if it’s also an easy way to dodge a question he doesn’t want to answer to, it’s still a good answer. As long as people are still connecting with the honesty in his work, it’s not all bad.

That’s how I received this part of the podcast at least. I hope it helps a bit 🙏🫶

[boyrobott]

i fully get it bc i know what u mean about original astro boy manga being silly with it vs pluto being relentlessly sad. but i do think it's really important to say that pluto's themes draw on a LOT LOT LOT of stuff present in the original manga! like, the stuff about hate making a robot closer to a human/allowing them to kill a human despite most robots being physically unable to is pulled directly from the blue knight story. the original greatest robot on earth story that pluto is based off is about pluto struggling with not wanting to be a robot made only for killing bc he had a nice time hanging out with uran and doesn't wanna make her sad. epsilon still dies saving his adopted human son, and atom ends the story mourning for all the robots who got killed for goji to prove a point. the moral (which multiple characters say) is that what makes a robot OR a person strong is their love and humanity not their killing power, and it is both stupid and perpetuating the cycle of violence to force robots to hurt each other. the robot hate group man in pluto is inspired by the villain of a segment in astro boy tales part 2&3 where he literally is in a group wearing kkk hoods and does a whole pr attack about robots killing his son because he is campaigning to remove their rights.

and it's not just the stories pluto references! hell, in basically half the stories at minimum a robot is forced by a human to do a crime, the police go 'dang i guess we gotta take the rights of all robots away and destroy them for scrap :(' and atom has to find the human responsible so that doesn't happen (the third magician, electro, and his highness deadcross are some good examples). the plot of the story robot land is atom struggling with wanting to save a bunch of robots being beaten up and worked to the bone by their creator, but he can't because robots are still technically property and helping them escape would be stealing and therefore illegal. in the little intro comics tezuka drew in the collection, he literally says 'yeah this is about the vietnam war being awful' about like fully three different stories. and that's just off the top of my head!!

'what makes a person, where is our empathy, why do we quest for vengeance when it only sucks us into a cycle, have we lost our humanity' are literally the most important core themes of astro boy, which is why it's so so impressive for kids comics that are still broadly super super cute and funny!

legitimately sorry for putting a huge wall of text in ur inbox because i know it's unsolicited and probably uncool. but astro boy is super important to me and so is the idea that a story can be goofy silly child adventures and also explore dark and serious themes? so i had like. a moment when i saw ur post lol. i get it if u dont wanna read all this etc but i wanted to i guess encourage u to give the manga a second pass even if u aren't into pluto at all. there's an insane amount of stuff there that really really legitimately is that deep

Okay, may I just say, I'm absolutely loving your impassioned defense of the manga here. You're bringing so much ride-or-die energy to the table right now, and I'm loving it. But I've been slowly reading through the manga over the past few years, so I... kind of already know all this??? That's pretty much the whole reason I made the joke in the first place -- because there are so many similar storylines and themes between the original manga and the Pluto series, but the individual tones literally could not be more different. The fact that a grim dystopian anime about the horrors of war and the true meaning of humanity is saying the same exact things as a fun, lighthearted, campy manga series?? Sorry, but that's just hilarious to me.

I can definitely see where the misunderstanding came from, but I promise, you do not need to defend the manga to me, LMAO.

[illegiblewords]

Serious talk about meta under the cut.

I don't know who might need to hear it, but fwiw mental flexibility is a huge part of analysis (and interacting with other humans lol). You need to be able to account for multiple possibilities when examining a work, or understanding a social exchange. You need to be able to separate what is objective fact from your own subjective interpretation and judgment. The most negative interpretation is not automatically the most worthwhile or true. Someone throwing accusations around in-line with their own worst interpretations does not guarantee those accusations are warranted. You are not a bad or stupid person for disagreeing. Shit needs to withstand scrutiny. I don't always strike the right balance myself. I do the best I can but I'm definitely not perfect. Tbh I'm not beyond pettiness either--although I try to keep that out of actual analysis lol. There have been times I've griped to friends privately or blogged about how I felt (sans tags, with spoiler blocks so people can opt out). I've griped recently. I'm bound to gripe again in the future. Some level of griping is inevitable imo and I figure no one is 100% immune.

All that said, even if someone’s take isn't canon AND even if it's something I really dislike--I'd personally rather people follow their passions anyway. Hands down. I could be in the middle of a rant and my answer would still be that the subject of my frustration gets to exist. I'm not the boss and odds are we're going with different versions in our own heads. Discouraging another fan from creating due to my preferences or narrative approach would horrify me. I've seen fandoms where gatekeeping like that killed the creative community and it was fucking awful.

Not everyone is confident in their own judgment. Not everyone faced with a pissed off person trying to use lore and accusations like clubs will feel okay continuing with their own vision. Elitism and manipulation (especially through rhetoric) can be present within analysis. People are not being taught how to recognize those things properly. Analysts aren't always aware or invested enough to even be careful. It’s legit easy to get caught up in ideas or feelings to the point of forgetting about other people’s, and adjusting to account for alternate approaches takes some work. For me at least, I think having a 'no insults' policy and being super careful when it comes to absolute claims (assertions not qualified by 'I think' or 'it could be argued') helps.

Anyway. Just because a person calls something ‘meaningless’ doesn't make it meaningless. Someone pooh-poohing an observation you made doesn't make your observation less true or important. Employing a literary term doesn't mean that individual actually understands the term, how it works, or how to apply it. Which is to say nothing of romantic chemistry or whatever. I encourage readers to extrapolate on this. ‘Shallow’ could apply as much as ‘meaningless’. Denying parallels exist by itself doesn’t actually negate those parallels. Your version of a character may not be the same as the fan next to you’s and that difference doesn't have to detract. There's more I could say on the subject (I've edited out a lot) but basically--just because another fan isn't into what you're doing doesn't automatically make what you're doing wrong, immoral, shoddy, or otherwise less.

Seriously, vet shit. Question the entire premise an analyst tries to establish then decide for yourself if it holds water. Turn over word choices and assertions in your head before deciding if they're appropriate. Do it to me too. I don't care if someone is the holy goddamn emperor of analysts. Just because a person says something is good or bad, true or false, whatever the hell doesn't make it so. Just because a person uses a technical term doesn't mean they're discussing it effectively. Quality of argument matters beyond the packaging it’s wrapped in. It's important to protect yourself from people whose priority is enforcing their own preferences, including dismissing things they aren't partial to.

I just don't want anyone shamed silent man. Not even people whose takes drive me up the fucking wall. Neither I nor any other analyst is an authority here. And there are people who are absolutely ready to take advantage of other people’s insecurities to assert themselves. Might not even be malicious, just indifferent.

For me, analysis feels kind of like uncovering a dinosaur skeleton. I want to share the cool and exciting things I find with other people. Sometimes I might be sorting out what my own thoughts and feelings are. It's also possible to examine why you're uncomfortable with something, or why you love something another person hates, while making very clear what is YOUR READING and not THE READING. Offering a variety of possibilities is very different from presenting yourself as the only correct one. One note at the end when everything else was insulting and intolerant is like a band-aid over a wound.

EDIT: As a last point, that I'm throwing in just-in-case. If anyone reading this thinks they may have overreached and done stuff I've mentioned + feels shitty about it… that's still not the end of the world. It’s okay. This is hard stuff to learn and I really don't think anyone's perfect at it. Worth the effort though. Just gotta take a deep breath, acknowledge you're a fallible human same as everyone else, and do the best you can going forward. Life goes on.

[jayswritings13]

Helluva: No labels, please

Dialogue Prompt: #7 (“Listen, me holding your hand and all of this, doesn’t mean shit.�� “Okay…” “…..unless you want it to mean something.”)

Character: Blitzø (Helluva Boss)

Requested by: Anon

Word Count: 506

💗Masterlist | WIP Page

Nights out in Hell often consisted of bar hopping and hook-ups. Usually after once of twice, you were done with that individual, hopping to the next, but lately you've been sleeping with the same person. Multiple times. Like double digits.

"You're making a habit of this, aren't you?"

"I don't think I have been."

"Really? 22 times?"

"And so, what if I am? Besides, I don't see you complaining."

"You're too busy biting and scratching to notice." You grinned, even if a lie. You found yourself comfortable with Blitzø. So what if that's why you kept going back? With life sucking as much as it did, you were allowed to have comforts. Once you started to sometimes miss the nights you didn't spend with Blitzø, you knew that you had a real issue. It was time for that stupid, uncomfortable conversation.

"Oh, please, those sounds weren't complaints and you know it."

Here it goes. You liked spending time with Blitzø, but you would be lying if there wasn't a little part of you that was worried that this would change things between the two of you.

"Listen, me holding your hand and all of this, doesn't mean shit."

"Okay..."

"I mean, unless you want it to mean something?" You said.

"(Y/N), I think that we have a pretty good thing going here, right?" Blitzø said, "Why ruin it with a stupid fucking label."

"Oh, thank god." You muttered.

"You're happy about this rejection?" Blitzø said, "What was with all that 'Unless you want it to mean something' shit?"

"I thought that you wanted a relationship, Blitzø!" You said, suddenly feeling guilty. It didn't take much to see that Blitzø was a bit upset with your relief.

"Why would you think that?"

"You constantly text me throughout the day and visit me at work." You said, "You had me visit you at work, so that you could introduce me to your co-workers."

"I don't see anything wrong with that."

"One of them is your daughter."

"Once again, I do not see you complaining."

"You're infuriating."

"You like it." Blitzø fell silent for moment, "Besides, truthfully, I don't think that I'm really ready for anything more than this. Verosika and I are a good example of that."

"You're normally not this truthful. It's shocking."

Of course, it was easy to see that Blitzø had issues with being vulnerable in relationships. Hooking up with Blitzø multiple times met that you got to know more and more about him with each visit. Even more so, once you and Blitzø started talking outside of these meetups. So, yeah, you got to know Blitzø a little. Well, enough to know that any vulnerable moment or emotion made Blitzø uncomfortable beyond belief.

"Well, I'm also not this drunk around you."

"....yep." You laughed, "That's more like you." You grabbed Blitzø's arm, wrapping it around your shoulders, getting up from the table. "C'mon let's get you out of here before you insult someone and I have to clean up the blood."

"Good call."

[ripplestitchskein]

How The Boys handled Hughie’s multiple and traumatizing sexual assaults is a really good example of realism being superseded by authorial intent and why you cannot always apply realistic standards of behavior or definitions of trauma etc to fictional works, worlds, or characters.

While it rankles our real world sensibilities, and the implications are rather horrifying it is often either part of the world building, ignorance on the writer’s part, an accepted problematic trope or pastiche, or something that will be explored later. In this case I didn’t get the impression it was the latter. The character implications it has as far as reactions/blame/support go would be interesting to explore, it certainly changes how I view Annie and their relationship and not to the good, but they did not signal that is a route they are going to go. They largely played both situations as a joke so as the audience you are left with the age old “Do I accept this as it is presented or should I look elsewhere”.

Honestly the writing this season was extremely poor and all over the place as a whole. I find the show rather disgusting and over the top in general but it did have some really compelling characters with interesting arcs. I enjoy the world building and attention to detail, and there are really good things to be mined from it but this season really played into the worst parts of the show and many of the individual character storylines fell completely flat, were rushed through, didn’t make a lot of sense, or were so back and forth I needed a weathervane to see where they would end up in any given episode since none of their decisions seemed to be based in previous experience or characterization.

The two things I enjoyed: A-Train, I think they have done a fantastic job with that character from the start. Like probably top character arc in my opinion. I have very few notes on him, it’s been wonderfully done.

Kimiko and Frenchie. Not most of it, I hated the Colin storyline, I hated the Kimiko storyline this season too. But I have wanted them together since S1 so I guess I’ll take these scraps, thanks. Overall it was terribly done, there was virtually no signaling they were going that direction after the shift to platonic friends in the previous season, their disparate storylines were supposed to feed into that build up but fell incredibly flat. It felt very much like Kimiko did a 180, going from pushing Frenchie to be with Colin from a place of genuinely supportive friendship to “actually I only wanted you with him because I didn’t think I was good enough” with zero indication she felt that way until she actually says it out loud for the audience. It was played the entire time like she was missing her friend, not that she had romantic feelings for him. And Frenchie similarly acted as if he was in no way thinking of Kimiko during that entire storyline, so for him to just accept everything was so odd to me. The Colin thing, while I appreciated seeing Merlin’s ass and that handsome smile again, was stupid and pointless and was so disconnected from what we’ve seen of Frenchie so far I still don’t see the point of it beyond “We need something for Frenchie to do until we need him for the virus storyline”.

That’s honestly a problem I had with everyone’s storylines this season. It was a lot of “sit on this shelf until we call you out for your moment” without any cohesion. I imagine this was largely due to scheduling issues or other real life logistical concerns but it doesn’t change that the writing itself was so bad.

[commanderquinn]

meta: sam coe - post-campaign analysis

allllrighty i am officially post-campaign so time for first thoughts. since im still collecting my feelings/opinions on the main quest i dont want to go super into that. i wanna wait and consolidate into a deep dive on that one. BUT i am a fic writer with a fixation on socioeconomics, intergenerational trauma, and more specifically the phenomenon of atheists clinging to their religious parents morals because they haven't taken the time to evaluate their biases and the reasons they still hold them

translation: the silver spoon space cowboy is an interesting concept. poory executed in the case of starfield, sadly, but great framework for fandom to chop the head off of and bring to their own individual comfort interpretations.

this meta will include spoilers for the following:

-sam's questline and the npcs involved

-his romance

-cora, the safety storyline around her, and how she's the best part of the space game

-why bethesda was fucking stupid to turn the cowboys into cops when they have the perfect opportunity for not that. i went in hoping for retired/reformed army rangers fed up with war looking to defend their home from fascism given the "han solo simulator" marketing, but all i got was this lousy ass rendition of the texas rangers, which i for SURE did not want

-i WONT be going into detail about the main plot for this post, just fyi. i wanna save that, and sam's relation to it, for its own essay. id still recommend not reading meta's until you finish the game tho

-i miss obsidian's writing. this game made me want to play outer worlds for the 100th time. that will probably come up a lot

this is probably gonna sound more than a bit scattered and off the fucking plot for the first section, but bare with me, im making a point eventually i promise. gotta make sure we're all on the same page first.

now that ive done a majority of his content, it's clear what the intent was for sam and i applaud it. i like it when good hearts in bad systems spot the fundamental flaws and decide to abandon it entirely, or work to change it. i hate perfect characters. i hate characters that have no growth to find. sam is a great character for showing the awesome power of a perspective change. but damn. what a waste when you're talking about a format where a writer is constricted to:

-an exact conversation trigger (bethesda games have always relied on interrupt & player approach, and i didnt notice any variation on game engine front but i wont know until they release the ck so)

-word limit on all responses (yes, you can make long dialogues in engine. but those words still have to be f u n d e d from a dev standpoint. words are not free in video games. capitalism sucks for art.)

-multiple conversation branches that ALL have to circle back to the original topic (they have to follow a set pattern of establishing a subject, then the players possible responses to that subject, the npcs responses to those responses, AND provide a seamless, one dialogue tie-in path to the next branch. it sounds super easy until you're the shmuck writing it, and then it doesnt feel so easy anymore)

-get approximately two personal quests with, what was it, 12 motion scripted scenes? (im watching other peoples pts now so ill try to remember to count, but it was. hmm. lack luster imo. im not saying quantity is vital. im a bioware fanatic, i know the power of quality when its actually delivered. i didnt have any moment like that for sams quests and it was kind of crushing. ill get into it.)

-appeal to a wide enough audience to obtain profit by holding back eXtReMe ViEwS (id like to point out that there is, at this exact moment in time, an active pr campaign (and a few scattered gaming content creators) surrounding starfield talking about how pronouns are politics and should be left out of gaming. over a setting flag in a save file. you literally dont even have to press a button about it. like, you pick your characters body. masc bodys are auto assigned m pronouns. fem bodies are auto assigned f pronouns. you literally dont even have to SEE the button, and it never gets brought up. the only purpose it serves is so the game knows what voice lines to fire. that. is. it.)

im not going to humor the "thats dumb, bethesda makes political games" contribution to the argument.

i get straight people think they're being super helpful and witty on that one, but i think the world would collectively benefit from allies taking just a few extra seconds before standing on that soapbox to maybe consider that calling existence "politics" might be, gee idk, insulting. maybe more than a lil dehumanizing. maybe super easily solved by just NOT giving into their parents obsession with playing devils advocate. i think if maybe allies could shut the fuck up for a minute or two at a time and go look for voices of authority within the communities they're defending instead of trying to talk over them, that'd probably work out better. might help cut out the completely useless middle man their parents taught them to be when they drilled home "you have to respect everyone's opinion"

no the fuck you do not, actually. i, as someone on this earth attempting to be a compassionate person, owe people a chance at understanding. i do not, under any circumstance, owe someone any kind of respect WHATSOEVER if they cannot respect me as a human being. full stop. i dont owe it to them, i dont owe it to their religion, i dont owe it to the government they try to establish. i do not owe respect to people attempting to oppress me. i never have and i never will.

but remember. there is context to be found in the passing of time. yes, you need to tell grandma to stop being racist. no, you do not need to banish grandma to the nursing home if there's still a chance that she's willing to sit and listen. a chance that she'll empathize with social perspectives that the racist society she was raised in never allowed her to have. breathe and give grandma the chance. then send her to the home if she's still racist.

(yes that was an analogy for how i imagine a perspective conversation with jacob would go. i do not have high hopes of that man finding self awareness given. well. who he is as a person.)

now. if you've played through sam's content, you already know why im bringing all of that up, but lets put together a list of all the things that Make Sam Coe Who He Is before we wrap it all up in a pretty bow that hopefully reads a lot less scattered than this "yo society got some trauma actually" lead up ive dumped on you

quick interrupt just for me: i love that im back on tumblr where i dont really have to give all that much of a fuck about making sense. any audience i could find here is equally unhinged so mostly i just have to format it in a way that makes your brain not hurt. sorry if you dont have adhd <3

1: lets talk about cora's hair.

im going to make the race observation because its bothering me from a dev standpoint AND the gamer crowd is already starting to make cuck memes which sucks to see.

i get that this doesnt matter in a colonialism scifi future where a service like enhance exists and we're talking about two rangers that apparently went under cover regularly, but it matters in the context of how sam was handled in a 2020 era commercial, creative environment. im just going to MENTION that cora coe's biological mother (that jab was me not liking her as a person, not me giving a shit that she's white) is paler than pale, and sam does NOT look like some of his earlier promo images. bethesda as a company also has a very long history of making characters arguably tan to avoid this shit.

9/16 edit: was asked for source, heres the exact image im referencing, which is still his set image on the starfield wiki to date:

(im going to preemptively warn any white artists building the urge to argue over this: you DO NOT want to die on a hill about lighting for this one, fucking trust me. thats not what this conversation is, and if you dont understand that as a White Artist, you need to sit this one out until you understand the full weight of the conversation and the profound effect of media treating skin color like a rare diversity accessory. bethesda has a very very long history of this. their last major story title, fallout 4, (76 was a money grab made in the other studio and i barely want to call it a game) had a whopping total of two black characters in its main cast, and both of them acted in subservient roles so please. please please please just. stop trying to defend bethesda on this one. its dehumanizing, cowardly, and malicious in this day and age. i promise im not trying to bite anyones head off here, im just Old And Tired when it comes to suburbanites in fandom.)

i think having solomon be canonically black would have been a really important aspect. i think it would have given the opportunity to show white people why its fucked up that they get SO EXCITED to save war mementos (or in the case of starfield a nasa memento) and will go on and on about how vital it is to save that piece of history, but when you bring up memorializing the importance of race as it pertains to human history and cultural history/pride, they suddenly start getting Very Uncomfortable and throw out phrases like "what does it matter we're all human" while standing next to the gun their grandfather smuggled home from the war

there is no brightness slider on pc and i havent gone reshade tweaking so everything is still washed out on my end (dont worry, as an rtx user, imma be makin a rant post on that) b u t. cora coe has a pale as fuck mother and a vaguely tan father with blue eyes and straight hair, meanwhile my precious angel has a darker complexion and curls that look like they're closing in on the 3c range so like. im getting vibes that sammy boy mighta been whitewashed during game dev, and thats about as far into THAT topic as im gonna bother to venture for this post.

2: his dad

were we supposed to have more daddy issues content??? istg it feels like there was the initial map talk and then nothing. im not saying that i cant pull blood from a stone and give you an entire essay on that glimpse of family trauma just from a few lines of dialogue, but still. feels like thats maybe something that should have gotten more detail.

"no forgiveness between me and my old man. it's uh... coe tradition."

oh boy. oh boy oh boy oh boy. what a line to start his personal quest

before we go ANY FURTHER im gonna drop a reference to one of my favorite aaron sorkin scenes of all time. its from the movie he did about the chicago seven, and i think it fits VERY well when having a conversation about how sam is shaped by his father

unfortunately the exact scene i want to show isnt clipped anywhere easy i could find, so here's an article that talks about that scene specifically if you want more context but dont want to watch the whole movie. what we're really focused on is this:

which is a scene where a fictional account of bobby seale, the leader of the black panther party at the time of the chicago 7 trial, said that above quote to a fictional account of tom hayden while they were having a conversation about how the stakes of this trial are life and death for him as a black man, but little more than a family dispute and a dark spot on their records for the (all white) chicago 7.

its a GREAT continuation of sorkin’s fascination around father son conflicts (he covered it a time or two during his writing days as west wings original creator, which is a great political show id strongly rec) and it really really works when used in comparison to those rebellion days sam had that he still flagellates over

sam was a privileged kid without a foundation of emotional support or a safe environment to vent to. he didnt have the words needed to communicate what he was feeling and thinking and experiencing. he didnt have the means to express himself in a way that wasn't immediately criticized by the people in his life. it doesnt take a degree in psych to figure out that sam first ran for the stars to run from his father. and it sounds like that was tradition

from the MOMENT YOU MEET HIM, jacob is full stop "my way or the highway" until you hit him with the good ol bethesda persuasion and his disposition pulls a 180 to hand you the next plot device

sam: "you know why im here."

jacob: "oh? and what's that? you come to your senses? realize where you ought to be for once?"

w o w

i wonder why sam never felt safe in his own home. i wonder why he doesnt feel safe leaving cora there. i wonder why that miserable fucking attitude and guilt has sam convinced that jacob will be the worst possible thing for his curious daughter's self esteem.

yes, grandparents sip a different kind of koolaid when it comes to their grandkids. no, that is not enough to protect that child from that much intergenerational trauma. sam's made a bad choice keeping cora in space, but he's made an EXCELLENT choice keeping her away from jacob.

forget "showing respect" to his son's choices, jacob won't give them the time of day. he brushes off constellation and wont go meet them for himself, he insists that cora being "in her family home" is the only priority (isnt THAT telling) and, as if that wasnt enough to prove he's incapable of empathy, the fact that he outright, direct fucking quote during that first scene with him, says to sam's face

"the only mistake im seeing here is you"

fuck anyone who walked away from that scene of a parent saying that to their own kid and had the response of "i dont understand why sam wont let jacob take care of cora." fuck you, genuinely from the bottom of my heart, if that was your reaction.

i looked for opportunities to get sam to talk about what the rest of those "30 plus years of experience with the man" really looked like after that. the fact that it was used as a plot device without any (from what I COULD FIND in my first pt, if i find any ill edit this) kind of dialogue discussion about that trauma around his father's behavior/mentality and the terrible influence it had is such a waste. chances are!!!!!! id fucking agree with him!!!!!!!!!! SO TELL THEM TO ME BETHESDA!!!!!! give me the chance to storm back into that house with the full story and let that geriatric fuck know why he will not be allowed back into my daughters life (yeah we're gonna be calling cora our daughter on this one bc, again, she's the best thing in the game) until he can learn to be a safe emotional environment for her

and THEN, at the end of the romance, the wrinkly mf drops a "hey can you go over sam's head and make the parenting decisions now" 20 minutes before your vows get exchanged in his living room (WE'RE GONNA TALK ABOUT THAT MESS OF A WEDDING LMAO ITS A LOT but im probably gonna save it for another sam post where i talk more in depth about why packing a complicated romance in that tightly just Dont Work). like wow. wowowowwow. if that doesnt perfectly sum up how he views the dusty's (shhh i really hope that name catches on pls i keep seeing ppl use captain instead its heartbreaking) role in the family now, and confirm how he's always viewed his own son, idk what does

3: lillian "i can abandon my kid and demand she be taken care of in the same breath" hart

i was originally going to go into hella detail on his relationship with his ex but honestly i think im just gonna leave a few paragraphs and not touch on her again bc its bad for my blood pressure.

okay, here's the deal. im biased in the sense that i had a mother with attachment issues and lets just say that his ex is worth about as much to me as a pile of dogshit. it'd be one thing if she had that moment of "oh. sam and cora bond really well and i dont fit" and decided to look at that and evaluate if she wanted to continue trying to be a parent.

but she didnt have a moment of reflection. she didnt talk to a therapist. she didnt have a discussion with sam. she went back to work and decided "oh well, my kid doesnt like me" and then left her daughter with an open wound and no shot at closure. which is just. wow. that's active abandonment. she WALKED OUT of cora's life because she couldn't stomach the idea that she didnt immediately win over her daughter without any effort to connect to her.

then she has the nerve to yell at sam for not doing the best for cora. like bitch, you cant even consistently answer the phone??? what are you on??? she's REPEATEDLY broken cora's heart with false promises, and clearly made no effort to truly atone for that given just HOW angry sam is ALL the times he brings it up.

and she does it all for what????? a beat cop reputation and some shiny medals????? like shut the fuck up with that righteous indignation piglet, you're killing smugglers under someone's made up authority to protect COMMERSE, not creating galactic peace. the idea that THAT SHIT is worth more to her than her own daughter having a mother who's around for all her life milestones is inFURIATING and id fucking deck her if i could.

the fact that there's zero chance to call her out other than one single "thats a pretty awful thing to say" option is a real cop out from bethesda. they realized they put a woman in a position where she could be really, truly yelled at for something like child care, and chickened out on following through with it so they wouldnt take any heat.

thats gross and should piss you the fuck off, by the way. that sure the fuck isnt what equality looks like by any measure. you don't empower women by acting like they're infallible creatures you cant call out for being flawed. and you sure as shit dont empower the next generation of women by forgiving their abusers.

4: cora's safety

which brings us to the big sticky: sam is a disaster and i DONT think that keeping cora on a combat-active spaceship is right. i think she'd be much better off living in constellation hq (aside from the main plot obvsly) with a constant open comm to her dad and the ability to bring her to outposts and secured sights.

the problem with the biomother's abandonment isnt the distance. its the lack of attempt to connect. its the lack of forming a bond. its the fact that she had zero desire to understand her child once she figured out her child didnt "love her the most" when thats literally not a thing. the problem was never the physical space, and it wouldnt have to be in sam's case, either.

he's a dad that's there for cora day in and day out, he just never got the chance to grow out of the panic stage of a parent worried the first fever is going to kill the baby. he didn't have his dad because he had to get out to protect himself, he doesnt have a mom because of how long she's been dead, and lillian checked the fuck out at an early stage apparently. so sam was left to be the nervous wreck trying to keep history from repeating itself. the man's flying blind in the face of all the combined generational trauma of himself, his father, and his ex, all while trying not to fuck up shaping a human life.

you're damn fucking right he keeps cora glued to his side, i legitimately do not think his own ptsd would allow him to do otherwise without someone like the dusty to come and and go "hey dude, maybe its time we read some emotional intelligence and trauma books so we can start getting cora into a stable environment for literally the first time in her life? also im going to teach her gun safety for my own sanity because you keep letting her walk all over you and its scaring the fuck out of me thinking my daughter is going to try to raid a pirate ship at 15 because no one taught you proper boundaries."

5: his morals

its been 30+ years and his father wont let go of arguing and micromanaging long enough to try to understand his son. lillian is a workaholic who believes her only inherit value is what she can provide to an organization that views living, breathing human beings as occasionally expendable while screaming about its pursuit of freedom and equality.

sam coe is a man who got told what he was supposed to be his entire life, tripped into drugs and crime in an angry, sheltered act of rebellion, and walked away from it all with a very skewed, very flawed interpretation of morality as a result.

lillian and his father are the clear moral compasses in his life. like yeah, sure, he'll talk about how cora is his driving force until he's blue in the face. and he's not lying!!! he's not even technically wrong. she is his active motivation day in and day out. but she is not his Morality. she hasn't developed enough as a person to be able to be that kind of beacon. she's a kid rushing herself through childhood because she thinks that will make her better and no one in her life recognizes it enough to stop it. she shouldnt have to be the moral guide for someone who's supposed to be guiding her

sam cant let go of the ranger envy. he couldnt stomach being around it, but he cant look at that discomfort long enough to identify why. he can walk into a bank and plain as day go "ah, don't you hate the smell of capitalism," but he can't bring himself to blink the stars out of his eyes long enough to ask why the rangers are so willing to put smugglers to death without trial. sam has enough awareness to identify the system is flawed, but he doesnt have the guts to really stare that down

he'll make cracks about walter having too much money and influence, but he wont actually mention how he and his wife are the root cause of an extraordinary amount of pain and suffering and perfectly avoidable manslaughter as a result of their business. i get that constellation runs as a dont as dont tell organization, but if sam's going to give me shit about nabbing a paper weight from a guy's desk, i think we should talk about how he doesnt display anger for walter's business practices.

sam coe, at his heart, is a dreamer who doesn't want to look too close at things. he was taught that some things just Are, and looking for too many answers will find you trouble. he's got the spirit of an explorer dampened by a lifetime spent under cops.

you can hear it in his voice whenever he talks about how proud he is of cora for being a goddamn prodigy. you can hear the wonder and the excitement there. you can hear the curious kid in him that probably got pushed out of the way while he was trying to shape himself into a Proper Coe

i think sam coe is a dreamer who was forcibly taught to fear learning as a child, and thats the real tragedy of him.

so let's start to tie our bow here.

sam is a man who, in a way that only a privillaged kid can, stumbled into neon's life of drugs and smuggling and self harm through destructive behavior with both eyes firmly shut.

he didn't fall into drugs after a lifetime of being submersed in the culture of it. he didnt take them because he grew up surrounded by people that just knew that's all life was ever going to hold. he didnt get into smuggling because he was starving. he didnt take on his first "criminal act" because there was a life and death battle going on somewhere in his life.

this man was drowning in guilt and shame centered around not "being a proper coe" by the time he was free of his father's control, by all accounts. you can hear how much self hatred he has over the memory of that time in his life. look, im not going to say that age and recovery doesnt come with regret, but he talks about it like degeneracy and something to be guilted about rather than just... living life. like so what you did some drugs?? so what you did a capitalism no no?????

corporations arent people. you shouldnt steal from them because itll put YOU at risk, but under no circumstance should anyone hold onto any guilt for stealing from them. money is fake and capitalism murders people every hour of the day. fuck the system, its fucking rigged, look out for you and yours while capitalism is stealing your natural resources and making private homesteading prosecutable (translation: in our actual, real life here, the government can throw you in jail for building a house without a permit. go look up at the sky and think about the moral journey humanity had to take to get us to that point, and then come talk to me about how i shouldnt encourage people to steal from corporations)

anyways back to the video game, as far as the "what if he was unknowingly smuggling something like organs or weapons" argument, there's no desire for me to defend it, tbh. i dont view crime as a personality brand the way cops do. someone being convicted of a crime doesnt make me see them as lesser, it makes me see them as a person who did a bad thing. i do bad shit all the time. we all do. we're human. sometimes there's an excuse for the behavior, and sometimes there isnt. that's not the end of the world. you own up to your actions, you apologize, and you put in the effort to make amends that fit the situation. end of story. the obvious exception to that being when someone you have victimized tells you to fuck off because they dont want your further involvement.

yes. yes there are people in the world that are genuine monsters that spend their time and energy looking for ways to do the cruelest shit imaginable to their fellow human beings. but those are fucking outliers, so no, im not going to let a conversation about morality be derailed by a fraction of a percent of the population

but people (like the rangers) who aren't ready to look at the whole picture of context, who would rather hyper focus on the unbending rule of the land, don't see that. they see a "type" of person once a crime has been committed rather than "a person who found themselves in this scenario"

sam was raised by cops. he fundamentally does not understand how biased his own view is. he'll sometimes make a vague mention of crime being a necessity, but you can hear how many strings are attached there just from the way he talks about it. he truly views crime as a black and white subject with exceptionally few slivers of grey to be found. you can hear the "law and order is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom" in his voice whenever he talks about how the rangers are "good people" he just "didnt fit anymore" and it's heartbreaking

he'd be so much better off if he would take a moment to reevaluate his priorities and look a lot closer at that guilt he carries and why he carries it. i think it would even help him better connect with cora in the long run. it would for sure give him a better handle on why letting his daughter take on college courses this early in her life isnt something to brag about. its a bad sign that she's pushing herself to Be Something in the exact same way he used to. he just doesn't recognize it because her way is "healthy" by society's fucked up view of child prodigies

tl;dr

i don't need to fix sam coe. he's stubborn, traumatized, and sheltered, not broken.

give that man good enough head and i'm absolutely sure he could be talked into reading some -clutches pearls- marxist literature

[ploppythespaceship]

Arrowverse - 2014-2015 Season

I am now officially alternating between multiple shows at once. Let the chaos begin.

This post will cover:

Arrow - Season 3

The Flash - Season 1

Crossover Event - Flash vs. Arrow

Arrow - Season 3

Wow. This season is a hot mess.

Right off the bat, the decision to fridge Sara is infuriating. She's a great character and deserves better to be unceremoniously killed off. (I know she comes back and is a part of Legends of Tomorrow, but that's besides that point for this season.)

The rest of the arc is absolute nonsense. Malcolm's motivations make no sense. Ra's is even worse, and undermines himself constantly by simply doing something stupid. Not to mention him being woefully miscast -- a White Australian guy in the part is certainly a Choice -- and the fact that everyone flip-flops on how to pronounce his name.

The pacing of this season is also pretty bad. It feels like we spend just a little bit too long on every individual part. Things clearly happen just to fill some runtime and stretch out the tension. Then the finale rushes through everything at a breakneck pace. It all just feels off.

But hands down the worst part of this season is how none of the characters have learned a damn thing about keeping secrets from each other. I recognize that this is a theme, that it's meant to be part of people's character arcs, but that doesn't change how infuriating it is to watch. The show has become an endless cycle of characters keeping secrets, dealing with the fallout when the secret is revealed, resolving not to keep secrets anymore, then immediately deciding that actually they're gonna keep secrets. It's agonizing.

Also, Laurel is awful. She is the worst character on this show by far. She doesn't listen to anyone, she makes objectively stupid decisions against everyone's advice, she never learns a single thing... I have to wonder when the writers will just cut their losses and write her out altogether. She fundamentally is not working.

Roy also feels like an afterthought, like he always has. But this season gave him a little more to do and wrote him out in a satisfying way, so I can't complain as much.

Meanwhile, the flashbacks in this season are really strange. It feels like they need to one-up what Oliver was doing during his five years, even if it doesn't really make sense. Waller has no real reason to recruit Oliver, and the whole plot isn't terribly engaging -- especially when the non-flashback scenes reveal everything important that happened already. We know the Alpha/Omega is going to be released, we know Akio is going to die, we know Maseo is going to abandon Tatsu, but the show still acts like these are huge revelations.

Despite my many complaints, there are still some things here that work. The primary one being Ray Palmer. God, what a breath of fresh air he is. Brandon Routh is so charming and contrasts so well with the other characters. He isn't meshed with the rest of the season well, at all, but he's so fun that I don't really care.

Overall, the season wasn't unwatchable by any means, but it was easily the worst of the show so far. And it doesn't help that I'm watching it alongside its sister show that's doing everything better.

The Flash - Season 1

(Full confession, this is not my first time watching this season. But I'd forgotten a lot.)

This show hit the ground running -- pun absolutely intended. Everything here just works. Every single member of the cast is phenomenal, and the characters have excellent chemistry. They seem to have learned from Arrow and set up a clear Team Flash from the get-go, with each character having a clear role in that dynamic.

The show also has a much lighter tone than Arrow, which I feel suits the story more naturally. It doesn't go to dark places nearly as often. The show settles into an easy formula that's just nice to settle into.

The Flash also does something I adore, which is emphasizing strong platonic relationships. Barry and Joe's father/son dynamic is everything to me. Cisco and Caitlin have a great friendship, as do Caitlin and Barry. And I truly appreciate that for 90% of the season, Barry and Iris are mature adults despite Barry's feelings for her. Barry doesn't try to get between her and Eddie (apart from one instance that was a misunderstanding) -- he values her friendship over everything else and prioritizes that.

If this season has one flaw, I think it played its hand with Wells way, way too early. They reveal that something's up with him in the first episode, reveal that he's the Reverse-Flash in the mid-season finale, and have the rest of the cast catch onto this a few episodes later. I think they robbed themselves of a truly spectacular twist moment, where the penny drops and everyone realizes they've been played. It makes the end of the season lose a lot of its punch as a result.

But overall, it's still an excellent first season, and I completely understand why The Flash sort of took over as the Arrowverse's flagship.

Crossover - Flash vs. Arrow

The pattern of crossovers is made pretty clear -- some light overlap, where they will reference or lightly feature characters from the other show, plus one big crossover event multi-parter that requires tuning in to both shows for that week. It's simple, but works fairly well... for the most part. The crossovers don't actually line up perfectly and require you to rearrange events in your head. In fact, Oliver's appearance on The Flash's penultimate episode implies that at some point he slipped away from Ra's al Ghul's tight watch, not to speak with his friends and inform him of his plans, but to beat up Harrison Wells as a favor for Barry. And that's hilarious, honestly.

The actual crossover is solid. It's very clear that Barry was set up to contrast Oliver, and these episodes work with that excellently. Their styles and personalities clash in all the right ways, making for excellent drama and letting them learn from one another.

They also manage to use the different tones of the two shows to great effect, emphasizing the contrast and how the two cities shape each of the heroes' styles. It's exactly what a good crossover should be, really.

[catchyhuh]

What about other relationships? And I mean it also in the platonic way? Do you have any headcanons for each pair? :)

i would LOVE to elaborate and you know i would but the reality is that there's. 24 other combinations here and i really have thought of every individual one to a degree in both a romantic and platonic sense but the only one that's like. damn near ONLY platonic to me is fujiko and jigen and frankly it's interesting so i think we'll hit that point first 

i’m just going to say it. the reason fujiko and jigen are so bitter towards each other is because they’re so alike. i mean obviously fujiko isn’t learning sick ass trick shots and jigen isn’t taking advantage of what god gave him and all but i mean in a psychological sense. they’re both very slow to trust, they think only idiots would trust THEM (major exceptions being lup and goe), and see vulnerability as something stupid and precious at the same time. also they’re both very much in theft for the money of it more than the thrill (although the thrill is def a factor for them both, they get very smiley during insane car chases and shit) WHICH unfortunately leads to the major clash between them: Dude What the Fuck That’s MY Shit

the main difference is that fujiko gets away with her betrayal, almost always, and jigen, as evidenced by his many, MANY exes, can’t really seem to cut clean ties with the people who he just doesn’t need anymore. multiple characters have insisted jigen has “softened up” since meeting lupin, and while he doesn’t seem offended by the accusation, maybe even grateful that he’s not the type of person he was before, fujiko’s never had that push FULLY come to shove, or she just… wasn’t deterred by it like he was. they both KNOW they’re bad people, and they’ve both accepted that to various degrees but in. slightly different ways. and maybe that’s part of why they clash too, just from fujiko not seeing a need to change vs jigen being very sure that he needs to-- and beyond that, maybe he’s jealous because she’s achieved a level of guarded emotions that jigen clearly hasn’t reached, based on how easy it is for people to read himIs any of this making sense. be honest. 

the two of them are surprisingly more content working together than they aren’t! if it’s “we ran into fujiko and oopsies haha i gave her the crown jewels :P” then yeah fighting starts but when it’s a job job, they almost always put aside their differences with ease. they’re both at least smart enough to realize each other’s capabilities, and when fujiko tells jigen to cut that wire, or jigen tells fujiko to swerve left, they’re not going to just IGNORE each other on that front! it’s something neither of them would say, and jigen would vehemently deny while fujiko would dismiss the subject altogether, but… yeah, they WOULD die for each other. of course, that doesn’t mean they LIKE each other, and they’re not often going out of their way to do things for one another, but it’s an interesting dynamic. like, i can barely tolerate you, but i respect you, and if only because someone else cares about you, i care. 

IT’S REALLY STRANGE like. it’s kind of like. when you have an ex-friend who liked a certain thing, and then you see like a t-shirt with that thing on it, or smell their favorite food when you walk into a cafe, and you think, “man, if we were still friends, i’d tell them i just thought of them” but, you can’t, because you aren’t still friends. fujiko and jigen are kind of like that, but without there ever being a true “friendship” period? the funny thing is both of them have managed to indirectly give the other gifts at LEAST once because they’ll be with one of the other two and go “one time i heard jigen say he likes those ties but i think the color is so dull it wraps around into being eyesearing” and “fujiko keeps saying she thinks the dupes of this purse are ugly and ‘do a disservice’ to the original but really i think they both look like shit” and then when it’s their birthday and they get this very specific thing they wanted theyre like. omg! you know me so well goemon!! i don’t even remember talking about this with you actually,

i don’t know IT’S JUST INTERESTING IT’S ALL SUPER INTERESTING TO ME. i love dissecting every tiny move they make when working together but i think my FAVORITE thing they’ve ever done together is when fujiko was stressed about lupin and goemon fighting (didn’t end up being anything severe i mean this was part 2 after all lol) and jigen just kind of leveled with her and was like “hey dude its cool. just chill out over there, they wont actually hurt each other, y’know, so like, you want a cigarette?” and she paused and was like. “yeah actually, i would” and it was as simple as that. it would’ve been easy for fujiko to snap about him assuming how she felt about this, or for her to even tease him about being worried for her sake, and it would’ve been easy for jigen to ignore fujiko’s obvious discomfort and maybe even silently enjoy it, but he didn’t, and she didn’t. and when the two of them wrapped up, jigen called her attention to tell her it was over. maybe it’s just left such an impact on me because of how relatively early in the franchise a moment like this happens, and i know i said earlier that them working together during times of crisis is interesting, but really, this is such a small thing in comparison, where it WASN’T a “we have to do this or we die” choice, but just a “we don’t have to make this suck for the other” simple decision. god i hope any of this makes sense

[2n2n]

the Sounds of Nightmares...

Well specifically I'm being baited by the stupid Sounds of Nightmares podcast, despite my own insistence that I don't care about aside material or really consider any new content commissioned by Bandai-Namco, and the scattered independent producers of all the various things under the property, necessarily relevant when analyzing the 2 games helmed by Tarsier Studios ...

Which-- I do stand by that ! Here is... an important... precursor, to talking about it.

I think who produces something is very important. It's not the franchise name which makes something enjoyable to you, it is what voice is creating it. If there were JSHK stories written by someone other than Iro-sensei, or if the property was sold off to another artist & writer, would you still be a fan of JSHK? This is how properties like... Warrior Cats (which is a book packaging deal comprised of at least 7 ghost writers), Star Wars, Marvel, work-- those characters, worlds, are not anybody's baby, but are loose concepts which people are paid to contribute to, to generate money as a franchise. It banks not on artistic integrity, but recognition of the property.

For example, I don't love everything that 'Adventure Time' is, or has become. It has passed through different directors, artists, writers, to the point that the original team who made it what I love, is not a part of something as derived as Distant Lands or Fiona & Cake. I also think somebody could like Fiona & Cake and not like OG Adventure Time. Because these are entirely different creations, with different vibes. I'm sure everybody actually has a relationship like this to SOME franchise! Liking early seasons of AT under Pendleton Ward, doesn't incline me towards liking how Adam Muto directs things, once he takes over. If my favorite board artists gradually leave, and are replaced, then I may not relate to the new voices writing episodes. I may not recognize what I loved in the original thing at all, in these new voices. OR sometimes, I CAN like a new voice... that's the roulette spun when things change hands many times.

I mean, people can like or dislike any Star Wars movie, as a mundane example. There is not 1 voice for all trilogies. Or extended universe novels. Or games. Or cartoons. Or Spinoffs. Famously.

By design, art created this way can't represent a singular vision, goal, or worldview... so as a result, these things tend to be haphazard, sloppy, inconsistent, roguely retconning or redefining aspects of canon as different writers or artists want to remake, reinterpret, or ignore set-ups proposed by others, in favor of their own. You'll have characters... often forgotten, brought back, killed multiple times, imbued with significance as quickly as they are written off. Some writer might introduce a concept which the next installment's writer hates. Individual teams or studios for different disciplines (one may commission a wholly different place to make an app game, a podcast, and a comic), may have hardly any communication with one another, and may only be working off of a loose lore bible or rubric. It depends on... the integrity of the franchise ... but almost by uhm, virtue of being a franchise, I'd say most don't... have.... integrity. Because it's often better to just throw more and more darts at a board and test what your audience likes .... artist integrity doesn't necessarily make something popular or speak to what the audience wants, after all. If anything I'd say being an artist with integrity makes one stubborn and liable to act regardless of what the audience wants ...

SO. all that out of the way....

Where all Little Nightmares bonus material is concerned, I take in each on their own terms, and don't necessarily absorb it all into my 'canon'. I mean, I feel LN2 entirely threw away what VLN did, by locking the 2 games in an enclosed loop.

I can't think "this aside comic EXPLAINS this thing from the games" when the games writers don't often acknowledge or engage with what those teams are doing.

BUT BY ENGAGING WITH THINGS ON THEIR OWN TERMS, I CAN ALSO BE LIKE... UGHH??? urhghgg... any random thing COULD beguile me. I mean, nothing is STOPPING ME from LIKING a new installment of Adventure Time, it's just that I DON'T like them, as fate has it.

I think the Sounds of Nightmares, is ,, HILARIOUSLY badly written, like from a quality or believability of voice standpoint. The dialogue is so cartoonishly bad. Feels a bit like a fanfic written by a 14 year old 😭 unfortunately it do be sounding like the exact kind of dialogue the writer of 1&2 has mocked & talked about swerving to avoid in his own work. Like the lack of subtlety... its so funny when LN1&2 are, entirely composed of subtlety.

but you know what I cannot resist, in my godforsaken bones ................................................... the notion of Mono & Six having been siblings in their previous existence. For The Love of God!!!! THIS AVVY BAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAOURUUGHHH ... Mono as a little brother growing older, struggling with the idea of his big sister abandoning him, refusing to believe she ever would willfully do such a thing... falling down an oubliette of moral decay, torturing children & sending them into oblivion in his desperation to reach her. The concept that he may do all of that only to become trapped in a loop where he both doesn't fully recognize her, or himself, but is also continuously abandoned by her endlessly. But also Did Find Her, Did Reunite, Does Have Her. So maybe the kid torture was the right choice.

I LIKE THE IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it is mildly frustrating to engage with, because of the lack of... absolutes. I feel like the implications are intentionally opaque yet ubsubtle all at the same time (Six's theme softly plays as Otto shouts at recognition of her yellow raincoat.... he is perfecting tuning the frequencies of the nightmares... he comments on the eyes watching him.... a tan trenchcoat is seen in the seamstress area wherein bodies are made to tether children into this other realm... otto mentions the importance of donning many masks...). There is a plausible deniability to it, and I wholly believe creating Red Herrings tastelessly is expected of the property, given the entire bait-and-switch of VLN is you thinking that girl is Six, But No She's An Unrelated Raincoat Girl (why?) (it helps the franchise recognizability by there always being SOME sort of girl in the iconic raincoat.. how could you sell an app game without that visual cache?)

I think the threat of "is this Six? Wouldn't that be interesting...." is frustratingly imperative to maintain audience attention, while the open possibility of saying "naaah lol nvm" is important to 'save' the lore (particularly if the audience doesn't like or rejects an idea ... you can pretend anything was the intention all along retroactively). This is the madness of franchises... *rubs temples*...

so what do I have to say. I do think the writing is not good, but I think the concept is delicious. I would love for Mono to have created a device to communicate with the Nowhere (and it as a semi-reality semi-dreamspace IS original canon...), and I like that suffering is essential to reaching towards it. I would love the creation of this device to be the inception of the Signal Tower, I would like his only window into this world to be the thing that will entrap him, as if the two cannot exist apart. I would like Six as a long-lost older sister who escaped through her dreams, but perhaps anticipated her brother following behind her.

The vibes of Otto, are great. I love a guy muttering "my beloved..." about his sister, and pathetically whining about how she'd never leave him. I like how much "Sisi" sounds like "sissy". I love how he speaks always in possessives about her "my Sisi" while Noone also fsr validates this by saying "your Sisi". Yeah!!!! I like how absorbed his life is in this, like he's had no pleasures or joys outside of his sister, and is always yearning for her.

I would say it suits Mono's description of being "uncommonly single-minded. When he sets himself to a task, he rarely gives up before it's completed." He's a uniquely determined person, to a fault. The Thin Man erodes many in his terrible city, so corrosive is the humm of his Signal Tower. I would like all of the irradiated child remains found in the Pale City to be children he treated with his machine, who were not only lost to their nightmares, but trapped within the Signal's call.

Imagining Six & Mono's lives before winding up in this nightmare... I haven't had anything in mind; I like to engage in the world as it is now, on its own terms. I would imagine neither remember what existed before this, anyway. Suddenly being proposed "Mono was Six's obsessive little brother" is like being electrocuted. UGUGHHH... YEAH??????? FINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if YOU want to, SAY THAT.... !!!! to ME.... ! it's designed specifically to torment ME.... to test my integrity....

It is also kind of HILARIOUS!!!!! Ahhhhh imagine working tirelessly to reunite with your sister, only to have the demons that be give you the ironic fate of being unable to remember or recognize her in such terms, yet there is a draw, a pull, a sense to need to protect & keep her at all costs. And then what ! It would be amazing to fall in love with her, to find her beautiful. It would be amazing to fuck her brains out like that !!

For the mostpart I don't have... interest at all in Noone's, visions or what have you, it feels a little mind-numbingly episodic, but I could probably enjoy plenty of it fully visualized...? I don't really vibe the podcast medium as a tool for storytelling I am afraid; it feels simultaneously less than a book and also less than a visual medium. Not enough immersive prose or opportunity for shifts in perspectives a book could offer, limited duration, a kind of hokey amount of SFX and the need for a contrived framing narrative (which basically demands a lot of unnatural exposition to convey anything), really dampens it for me. I read it all as transcripts because that's a little more tolerable, but that just leaves me wishing it didn't need to be in a scripted format, and was .... a book .

My favorite concept it did bring forth, which well-aligned with my own impressions, was that seamstress room. I liked the half-made doll stabbed onto the table, and Noone feeling a connection, as if that was her, and all of these awaiting clothes. I enjoy the idea that one's consciousness is sort of split & hobbled when in-between reality & dream, until a vessel is made on this other side, which 'completes' you at last. I like the mythology of that, of needing a new body... exploring the 'doll' aesthetic we've got here.

I also like.... the notion of time not being linear, the Ferryman simultaneously existing for a lot of children. Since I'm only willing to engage Sisi & Otto as Six & Mono... I would love the notion of timelessness, that despite 'searching' for his sister for years, they might come into existence in this world at just the same time; maybe the Ferryman could have promised Six that her brother will come, & the matter of time is relative here as everything warps. They won't be apart, actually. I am FOND of the idea of Six & Mono's clothes coexisting in a trunk... despite Six having disappeared much 'before' his, in our world. Perhaps her body isn't finished being stitched together until Mono appears. That would be what I would like... </3 Maybe sissy only left because it was promised that you would eventually come.............. only the illusion of abandonment. To motivate you </3 come chase meeeeeee otouto

[understandingbimbos]

4chan notes masterpost

On bimbo harems:

Doesn't even need the bimbofication to reach that point, you get the same scenario in normal porn.

For bimbofication scenarios to be good they have to focus on the fact that the characters were changed by bimbofication, and the contrast between their old personality and their new exaggerated body, extreme sex drive, sluttier personality, possible IQ changes.

If you can cut out the pre-TF part of a bimbofication story and you can't tell from the remaining parts that it's bimbofication, it's useless.

/d/, 2021.

On IQ:

IQ tests are usually based on linguistic, spatial and mathematical intelligence, as well as logic puzzles. It's pretty common that people who're bad at these things have good intuition, social intelligence, musical intelligence, visual intelligence or what have you.

Whether or not you have cognitive impairments is decided not by an IQ test score, but by whether you are functional or not.

Someone with an IQ test result of 69 could be hopelessly inarticulate, their head might swim at simple multiplication or they might not be able to grok rotating 3D objects, but this does not mean they're not fun to be around, kind, well-socialized, with talent for art and with common sense.

Conversely, you could have someone with an IQ of 118 who's rotten at interpersonal cues, who has an aggressive and suspicious personality, who has no eye for beauty and who doesn't care for or about other people.

It's number 2 who'll be living in a dump and coming off as an actual retard and not number 1.

Intelligence is really wide, but seeing as it's mainly low linguistic and mathematical intelligence that gets people off here, you see a lot of low IQ scores [in bimbo transformation sequences].

/d/, 2019.

On IQ-2:

What I'm trying to say is that you can have someone who's "bimbo stupid" without actually having a retard who can't wipe their own ass, because low IQ doesn't necessarily suggest low functionality.

There's measurable intelligence and there's practical intelligence, and I think the perfect combination is someone who's dumb as a bag of sand but still has enough positive qualities and competences to be a functional adult if only by the skin of their teeth.

/d/, 2019.

On IQ-3:

IQ measuring is hard to do in a scientifically responsible way due to fundamental differences in conception of intelligence and the immense variation in practical intelligence not just down to the individual but also the situation.

Add to that the instinctive human desire of "Grug have bigger brain than you", and you have a volatile cocktail where no one even agrees what it is they're actually supposed to be studying.

/d/, 2019.

On intelligence loss:

I really like emphasizing the loss of intelligence as that has been the one consistent aspect of the fetish in writings about it going back over twenty years now. Though I personally like portraying it in a more cute fashion, I'm usually taken out of the writing when they start talking like cavemen instead of valley girls. I've written both "cartoonishly dumb" and "realistically dumb" bimbos and I love both. When writing the latter I usually end up making their personalities a little meaner, not always cruel but definitely less considerate, and make sure to emphasize a growing interest in vapid things. Though it's not uncommon for both versions to come out saccharine sweet trophy wives. The cartoonish camp is often written with an awareness of their stupidity while the realistic camp is not.

/d/, 2021.

On the portrayal of stupidity:

I do like the dumb bimbo stereotype, but more like "you got the answer wrong but you did all the math right" dumb. Like capital of Texas is T dumb. Stupid, but understandable.

/d/, 2021.

On writing bimbospeak:

Avoid words with more then two syllables, use slang whenever possible, always use sexual innuendos and slang where possible, you seem to have the California valley twang accent in mind already which is good.

/d/, 2021.

On bimbo appearance:

Fake/Big tits are not required for a bimbo you goddamned coomer. It’s part of the core aesthetic but it’s not REQUIRED. Just like a tomboy doesn’t need to be muscular or have short hair, it’s about the soul of the thing… the essence of bimbosity.

/tv/, 2022.

On the appeal of fake tits:

It's a perverse act, they're obviously fake and cartoonish turning them into living sex dolls. It's all about self destructive decadence. I dunno how else to explain it.

/tv/, 2020.

On interacting with/picking up bimbos:

Contrary to popular belief, it's actually not that hard, nor it requires some special amounts of money or high status. Sure, these things help, but that applies for all women. Bimbos are still somewhat of a no-no in society eye's and are usually happy for an actual honest interest beyond their looks. I would even go that far and say that bimbos are easier to get for relationship if you know what you are doing. Also from experience, these girls are usually more direct, honest but also with way more drama.

I used to fuck a lot of bimbo hookers in Singapore. They love chit chatting. You treat them human and their eyes light back up.

/tv/, 2020.